Even the Used-Car-Salesman provides their customer with a warranty. Our mass media are accountable to no-one. When not trading lies, they trade in banality. They tear down the truth to elevate deception, they ignore the heroic to fawn over the craven.
The following stories should not persist in a civilized world. The mass-media is not directly responsible for the existence of these stories, but they are responsible for their persistence.
The dangers of blogging
The US government wishes to extradite Julian Assange. It all happened so long ago, who can really remember what it was about? The records show that Assange’s blog site, WikiLeaks, published classified documents and footage of US Military personnel committing war crimes and proof of the systemic use of dehumanizing torture methods. How Assange received the classified information is the problem.
WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of emails, diplomatic messages and other documents. The mass media also published the most sensational revelations.
Julian Assange’s ‘final’ appeal against US extradition to be held in February | Reuters
We have confined Julian in one place or another for over a decade.
The UK Judiciary has attracted criticism. The main one is that the UK government has surrendered its sovereignty to appease Washington. And Washington, pissed at the success of Julian’s blog, is determined to punish him.
Fact-checkers and several Pulitzer prize-winning journalists argue that supporters of Julian are alt right extremists, nazi sympathizers, casual racists and Trump supporters. Some of them they attest harbor deep-seated resentment against women and homosexuals. And others are said to be Hamas sympathizers and/or Putin apologists.
Putin is doomed
On mainstream media, well-credentialed commentators continue to hope Russian President Vladimir Putin will be thrown out of office. The war may not be won, but nor has the counter-offensive failed. At worst, the conflict is frozen or a stalemate or…
Russia’s economy is overheating (yahoo.com)
They argue that EU sanctions have pushed the Russian economy to the precipice of collapse.
Russian oligarchs are forced to emigrate back home. They must forgo their yachts and Tuscan villas. No more jetting into Paris for Lobster and Champagne. They now dine on borscht, fermented cabbage, a stiff shot of vodka and Russian winters. Worst of all, the Porsche is replaced with the Haval.
No access to tax-free havens from Russia. Oligarchs must invest in the domestic economy or face a diet of beetroot soup in a Siberian Gulag. The economy functions only because of these draconian measures. Or so we are led to believe.
Maintaining sufficient troop numbers for the Ukrainian war effort has led to a shortage of workers. Russia is busy importing workers from the central Eurasia. The way the EU is going, Russia maybe importing workers from Wester Europe too.
Shutout from Western Markets (the EU, US, Canada, Australia, NZ, South Korea and Japan) Russia must limit its trade to the poorer 85% of the world.
If it were not so big a country, some 20% of the entire world’s landmass, Putin could not snub his nose at us. Western think-tanks bemoan Russian resilience. If only there were less people in the world, then demand for Russia’s energy and food trade would plummet.
Back in 2022, libraries and schools in the western world banned books by Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. It was not enough. Lloyds of London refused insurance to vessels carrying Russian goods. This too was not enough. Western banks confiscated Russian sovereign funds – and this was not enough. All eleven rounds of sanctions have not been enough.
Fortunately, the western world is awash with think-tanks with no shortage of ideas.
Dumb and Dumber
Biden’s Secretary of State Blinken visited the Emirates last week. Headlines in the underdeveloped world scoffed at the brevity of the visit. They proclaimed America is no longer respected. Blinken was snubbed when he waited at the Abu Dhabi Airport for two-hours, only to be greeted by the Emirs Chauffer.
Putin Travels to U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia on Rare Trip to Mideast – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
The incident reveals that these second-tier countries don’t understand US culture. The United States of America is the indispensable nation. The empire does not trade trades in pomp. No US Secretary of State is to be mistaken for a popinjay to be wined, dined and lauded.
But the pomp was there to greet Putin, two days later. A gaudy extravaganza with entire legions of military personnel, high-tech equipment, camels and other exotic animals lined up from the Airport to the Palace to honor Putin. There were gun salutes and jet fighters shooting Russian colored propellants into the sky.
For Brussels this was profligate show, exposing the insincerity and hypocrisy towards the looming climate catastrophe by the Emirate’ leadership.
Trump Terror
From Brussels to Washington, everyone is afraid. No one can stop the orange man. He means to win the election in 2024 by hook and crook. No number of District Attorneys and reams of evidence detailing Trump’s criminality is sufficient. Daily, legal teams discover new damning evidence but for nought. Trump’s poll numbers grow.
A New Poll on the Trump Indictments Has a Surprising Result – POLITICO
No matter how deranged racist, misogynist, homophobic or narcissist, Trump possesses a magnetic power that beguiles his enemies. Within his inner circle, he is dubbed the God-Emperor. Supporters share images of Trump seated upon a throne with a golden crown, bejeweled with precious stones, clutching Excalibur. We shudder at the chilling image of limitless ambition.
CNN, MSNBC, FOXNEWS et al are in horror. As one senior news editor confessed, “After the experience of his first term, Trump knows exactly how the machinery of Washington works, and he has had three-years to brood and plan his revenge.”
Get your bison hat on, the insurrection is upon us.
